Experimental Investigation of Friction in Compliant Contact: The Effect of Configuration, Viscoelasticity and Operating Conditions

This work investigates the effects of kinematic conditions, configuration, viscoelasticity, and lubricant viscosity on friction in lubricated compliant contacts. Experimental data were also used to develop a numerical simulation capable of predicting fluid friction in compliant contacts. Mini Traction Machine (MTM) in the ball-on-disc configuration was used to successfully gain insight into the behaviour of compliant contacts, allowing the investigation of the mentioned effects. The findings have confirmed that viscoelastic effects are present in all configurations, being soft-on-hard (S/H), hard-on-soft (H/S) and soft-on-soft (S/S), where they seem to be more profound in the configurations using compliant discs. The experimental data also suggest that the slide-to-roll ratio affects rolling friction in all configurations which is contrary to current literature.